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Cited by 3,906Globalization and political ideologiesAnthropological Studies and InsightsFoucault, Power, and Ethics

Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty

Ong, Aihwa·2006·Duke University Press eBooks
DOI 10.1215/9780822387879
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Abstract

Neoliberalism is commonly viewed as an economic doctrine that seeks to limit the scope of government. Some consider it a form of predatory capitalism with adverse effects on the Global South. In this groundbreaking work, Aihwa Ong offers an alternative view of neoliberalism as an extraordinarily malleable technology of governing that is taken up in different ways by different regimes, be they authoritarian, democratic, or communist. Ong shows how East and Southeast Asian states are making exceptions to their usual practices of governing in order to position themselves to compete in the global economy. As she demonstrates, a variety of neoliberal strategies of governing are re-engineering political spaces and populations. Ong’s ethnographic case studies illuminate experiments and developments such as China’s creation of special market zones within its socialist economy; pro-capitalist Islam and women’s rights in Malaysia; Singapore’s repositioning as a hub of scientific expertise; and flexible labor and knowledge regimes that span the Pacific. Ong traces how these and other neoliberal exceptions to business as usual are reconfiguring relationships between governing and the governed, power and knowledge, and sovereignty and territoriality. She argues that an interactive mode of citizenship is emerging, one that organizes people—and distributes rights and benefits to them—according to their marketable skills rather than according to their membership within nation-states. Those whose knowledge and skills are not assigned significant market value—such as migrant women working as domestic maids in many Asian cities—are denied citizenship. Nevertheless, Ong suggests that as the seam between sovereignty and citizenship is pried apart, a new space is emerging for NGOs to advocate for the human rights of those excluded by neoliberal measures of human worthiness.

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  • After the Cultural Revolution, as the Party-state's priority shifted from class struggles oriented toward egalitarianism to economic growth aimed at prosperity, the political passion of Chinese people gave way to material, sexual, and affective longings.

    “After the Cultural Revolution, as the Party-state's priority shifted from class struggles oriented toward egalitarianism to economic growth aimed at prosperity, the political passion of Chinese people gave way to other sentiments such as the material, the sexual and the affective longings (Rofel, 2007; Ong, 2006).”

    From Patriarchal capitalism with Chinese characteristics: gendered discourse of 'Double Eleven' shopping festival (2017) · cites this paper as Ong, 2006

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Authors
Ong, A.
Corresponding author
Ong, Aihwa
Venue
Duke University Press eBooks
Publisher
Duke University Press
Published
2006
DOI
10.1215/9780822387879
OpenAlex
W630475953
Cited by
3,906
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 125 · 2025: 54 · 2024: 81 · 2023: 76 · 2022: 81 · 2021: 222 · 2020: 285 · 2019: 269 · 2018: 242 · 2017: 240 · 2016: 260 · 2015: 271 · 2014: 298 · 2013: 358 · 2012: 271
FWCI
161.72
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Duke University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Globalization and political ideologies
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Foucault, Power, and Ethics
Keywords
neoliberalism, neoliberal governance, exception, East Asia, Southeast Asia, women's rights, flexible labor, knowledge regimes, citizenship, sovereignty, territoriality, migrant domestic workers, non-governmental organizations, human rights advocacy, authoritarianism, communism, global economy

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